Category: Linux

A complete, beginner-friendly guide for self-hosters who want a beautiful personal dashboard and easy network access to its config files.

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If you’re running Proxmox and have an Ubuntu VM, one of the most useful services you can spin up is Glance — a fast, lightweight, highly customizable self-hosted dashboard. It pulls together RSS feeds, weather, Reddit, Hacker News, YouTube channels, market data, Docker container status, server stats, and more into one clean interface.

In this guide we’ll cover everything end-to-end:

1. Enable SSH access
2. Install the official Docker Engine on Ubuntu
3. Deploy Glance using Docker Compose
4. Share the Glance configuration folder over the network with Samba (SMB)

This works on Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, and 26.04.

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Prerequisites

• An Ubuntu server or VM (this guide assumes a Proxmox VM)
• Console access to the VM (via Proxmox web UI or physical console) for the initial SSH setup
• Your username is syndicate and the Glance folder will live at /home/syndicate/glance (adjust paths if yours is different)

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Part 1: Enable SSH Access

Most Ubuntu Server installations already have SSH enabled, but if you’re using a minimal image or need to set it up from scratch, follow these steps.

1. Install the OpenSSH server (if it’s not already installed):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openssh-server -y

2. Start and enable the SSH service so it starts automatically on boot:

sudo systemctl enable --now ssh

3. Check that SSH is running:

sudo systemctl status ssh

You should see active (running).

4. (Optional but recommended) Allow SSH through the firewall if you have UFW enabled:

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw enable          # only if the firewall is not already active
sudo ufw status

5. Find your VM’s IP address:

ip a

Look for the IP under your main network interface (usually something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x).

You can now connect from another computer using:

ssh syndicate@YOUR_VM_IP

Security tips:

• Prefer SSH key authentication instead of passwords when possible.
• Consider changing the default SSH port or restricting access with AllowUsers in /etc/ssh/sshd_config for extra security.
• After making any changes to the SSH config, restart the service with sudo systemctl restart ssh.

Once you can log in via SSH, the rest of the guide can be completed remotely.

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Part 2: Install Docker Engine

SSH into your Ubuntu VM and run the following commands.

# Update packages and install prerequisites
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ca-certificates curl -y

# Add Docker’s official GPG key
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the Docker repository
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
Components: stable
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

# Install Docker Engine + Compose plugin
sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin -y

Recommended: Allow your user to run Docker without sudo:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and log back in (or reboot the VM) for the group change to take effect.

Verify Docker is working:

docker run hello-world

You should see a success message.

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Part 3: Deploy the Glance Dashboard

The easiest way is to use the official Docker Compose template.

# Create the directory and download the official template
mkdir -p ~/glance && cd ~/glance
curl -sL https://github.com/glanceapp/docker-compose-template/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz | tar -xzf - --strip-components 2

This creates a clean project structure containing:

• docker-compose.yml
• config/glance.yml and config/home.yml
• .env and other supporting files

You can optionally edit the config files now:

nano config/home.yml      # widgets and layout
nano config/glance.yml    # theme, pages, etc.
nano docker-compose.yml   # change the published port if needed (default is 8080)

Start Glance:

docker compose up -d

Check that it’s running:

docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f   # press Ctrl+C to exit

Open a browser and go to:

http://YOUR_VM_IP:8080

You should see the Glance dashboard.

Useful commands later:

Action	Command
Stop Glance	docker compose down
Restart	docker compose restart
View logs	docker compose logs -f
Update to latest version	docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

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Part 4: Share the Glance Folder Over SMB (Samba)

Being able to edit the Glance config files from your main computer is very convenient. We’ll set up a private Samba share for /home/syndicate/glance.

1. Install Samba

sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba -y

2. Create a Samba password for your user

sudo smbpasswd -a syndicate
sudo smbpasswd -e syndicate

You’ll be prompted to set a Samba password (it can be different from your Linux password).

3. Set correct ownership and permissions

sudo chown -R syndicate:syndicate /home/syndicate/glance
sudo chmod -R 775 /home/syndicate/glance

4. Configure the share

Edit the Samba configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Scroll to the bottom and add this section:

[glance]
   comment = Glance Dashboard Config
   path = /home/syndicate/glance
   browseable = yes
   read only = no
   guest ok = no
   valid users = syndicate
   force user = syndicate
   force group = syndicate
   create mask = 0664
   directory mask = 0775

Save and exit (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X).

5. Test and restart Samba

testparm                  # check for syntax errors
sudo systemctl restart smbd nmbd
sudo systemctl enable smbd nmbd

6. (Optional) Open the firewall

If you’re using UFW:

sudo ufw allow samba

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How to Access the Share

From Windows
Open File Explorer and type:

\\YOUR_VM_IP\glance

Log in with username syndicate and the Samba password you created.

From macOS
Finder → Go → Connect to Server → enter:

smb://YOUR_VM_IP/glance

From another Linux machine

smbclient //YOUR_VM_IP/glance -U syndicate

You can now edit config/home.yml, config/glance.yml, and other files directly from your main computer. After making changes, restart the container so Glance picks them up:

cd ~/glance
docker compose restart

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Final Tips

• Always keep a backup of your config/ folder before making big changes.
• If you want the share to be public (no password), change guest ok = yes and remove the valid users line — but this is less secure.
• For production use, consider putting Glance behind a reverse proxy (Nginx Proxy Manager, Caddy, or Traefik) with HTTPS.
• Glance is extremely lightweight, so it runs happily even on modest VMs.

You now have SSH access, a fully working Glance dashboard running in Docker, and easy network access to its configuration files via SMB. Enjoy customizing your new personal command center!

You now have a fully working Glance dashboard running in Docker, with easy network access to its configuration files via SMB. Enjoy customizing your new personal command center!